PC Industry
Business Week, 11/3/03: What You Don't Know About Dell
A look at the management secrets of the best-run company in technology
When Dell CEO Michael S. Dell and President Kevin B. Rollins met privately in the fall of 2001, they felt confident that the company was recovering from the global crash in PC sales. Their own personal performance, however, was another matter. Internal interviews revealed that subordinates thought Dell, 38, was impersonal and emotionally detached, while Rollins, 50, was seen as autocratic and antagonistic. Few felt strong loyalty to the company's leaders. Worse, the discontent was spreading: A survey taken over the summer, following the company's first-ever mass layoffs, found that half of Dell Inc.'s (DELL ) employees would leave if they got the chance.
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Security
Computerworld, 10/23/03: Five frequently asked questions about managed security services
Advice by Phebe Waterfield, The Yankee Group
OCTOBER 23, 2003 ( COMPUTERWORLD ) - The managed security service business is booming; it produced $900 million in revenue in 2001 and $1.5 billion in 2002. The Yankee Group forecasts that the market will grow to $2.6 billion by 2005. This research note underscores the ingredients in a successful engagement.
Should I select the same service provider to manage both IT services and security services?
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The Register, 10/24/03: Flea bugs Windows users
By John Leyden
A new virus called Flea is on the loose. The Visual Basic Script worm disguises itself as the ‘signature file’ in HTML-formatted mail.
Flea can execute automatically when users open HTML formatted emails in Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express. Unlike most Windows nasties, the bug does not depend on a user opening an infectious file to do its mischief, Finnish AV vendor F-Secure warns.
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Infoworld, 10/23/03: Patchy years ahead for software users
IT administrators struggling to keep up with patch work
By Scarlet Pruitt
Dale Sweitzer, a network administrator for Crossville Ceramics in Tennessee, has hit a rough patch -- or series of rough patches to be exact.
Sweitzer, who handles security for 160 geographically dispersed PCs running Microsoft Corp. software, says that he spends more time and money applying software patches than he does doing almost anything else on the job, and he's not alone.
Although vendors like Microsoft have been working recently to simplify software patch delivery, the problem remains a critical one for IT administrators who are struggling to keep up with all the patch work.
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Mobile
CanadaIT, 10/23/03: Infowave to Provide Exchange Email Support for Windows Mobile-based Smartphones
Wireless Email Software Targets Enterprises
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--Infowave Software (TSX: IW) today announced its support for the new Windows Mobile 2003 software for Smartphones with its Symmetry Pro suite of wireless email solutions. By adding support for Windows Mobile, Infowave's flagship software suite enables users of Microsoft Exchange 5.5 and 2000 messaging software to choose from an unsurpassed breadth of smart wireless devices, including those with the Windows Mobile 2002 and 2003 software for Pocket PCs and Smartphones, Palm OS (including handhelds from Palm/Handspring, Kyocera and others) and Symbian OS (including mobile phones from Nokia and Sony Ericsson).
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Microsoft
Computerworld, 10/23/03: Microsoft posts 'revisions' to security bulletins
There were problems with some foreign language versions of Windows and Exchange e-mail server
Story by Paul Roberts
OCTOBER 23, 2003 ( IDG NEWS SERVICE ) - Two software patches Microsoft Corp. released last week caused problems on foreign language versions of the Windows operating system and Exchange e-mail server. As a result, Microsoft yesterday issued "major revisions" to the two patches, MS03-045 and MS03-047, that included new patches for affected customers and additional instructions to get the patches to stick on vulnerable systems.
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Future Focus
Release 1.0, 10/23/03: Online Reputation System
By Jeff Ubois
In the online world, identity alone is not enough. We encounter strangers on the Internet all the time, and who they are – even their “true names” – is hardly enough. We need to know more about people when we encounter them without history. What are they known for? Who will vouch for them? In short, we need to know their reputations. Economically, reputation systems do three major things: They foster good behavior, they punish (over the long term) bad behavior when it occurs, and they reduce people’s risk of being harmed by others’ bad behavior. Oddly, they are the opposite of a traditional insurance system:
Rather than sharing risks across a broad population, they assign costs directly to those who cause them. People with good reputations can charge more or pay less. People with bad reputations shape up, pay more (or earn less) or don’t get to do business. (And yes, profit-seeking credit-grantors or insurers use reputation to set premiums or allocate business.) Because of all these effects, reputation systems make people more likely to engage in transactions in the first place, whether that means going out on a date or buying a sofa unseen.
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Optimism
ABCNews, 10/23/03: Feet Don't Fail Me Now
To Gauge a Company's Future, Follow the Feet of Its Workers
By Michael S. Malone
Oct. 23 — First, I look at their feet.
As I've mentioned before in this column, every veteran reporter carries a collection of subjective, analytical tools to help pierce the muck of publicity and hype and see the real story beneath. This is as true in tech as it is in politics or sports or Hollywood.
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